Thursday, April 21, 2011

American Idiots

For his birthday, my parents gave Greg two tickets to the first Knicks' home playoff game since 2004. My dad never formally claimed the second ticket, but Greg and I assumed it was for him. After all, he bought the tickets, and he’s been a Knicks fan since, well, a long time ago.

So it shocked both of us Monday night when Dad told us the other ticket was mine…

"Sometimes I give myself the-eee creeps."

Because he couldn’t go…

Because he was going to a play.

We were aghast, as Dad desperately tried to defend himself:

DAD: There’s no intermission. I’ll get to see the end.

US: How could you?

DAD:It’s the final showing of American Idiot. Billie Joe Armstrong’s making a guest appearance!

ROBBY:Who?

DAD: It’s not an elimination game. It’s the only one I’ll miss!

US: You call yourself a fan?

DAD:They either win, and I’m happy, or they lose, and I’m glad I missed it.

US: It’s the playoffs!

DAD: I didn’t know when the games would be!

US: (silence)

DAD:What am I supposed to do? Mom got me the tickets as a gift.

ME:So you should be able to do what you want with them!

But my last comment caused me to hit the brakes. The exchange was beginning to sound strangely familiar. I thought back to a g-chat conversation Lindsey and I had a little over a week ago, about a wine tasting class she had gotten me...as a gift.

ME (to Lindsey): So when are we doing wine tasting? 5/12?

LINDSEY:Oh yeah, good news about that. They can do the earlier date, 4/21.

ME (to myself):Oh no.

LINDSEY:I figure we’ve put it off long enough. Time to just do it, right?

ME (to myself):Not if Game 3’s that night.

ME (to Lindsey):I thought we had said 5/12.

LINDSEY:Well, you said you could do either.

ME (to myself):I DID say I could do either. Why the heck did I say I could do either? I knew full well when the first round would be! This must’ve been during the six-game losing streak. I lost focus.

LINDSEY:Can you not do 4/21 anymore?

ME (to myself):I could say no, but she’ll ask why. And I’ll have to explain it’s because there’s a 45% chance there’ll be a very important Knicks game that night.

ME (to myself): Whatever, it’s my gift. I should be able to do what I want, right?

ME (to myself):Right. See how that goes over.

ME (to Lindsey):Yeah, 4/21 is fine.

Was Dad any less of a Knicks fan than I was? Of course not. We were two boyfriend/husbands stupidly leaving our playoff fate to chance in order to avoid what at the time felt like unnecessary conflict.